Winklevoss Twins Win Patent for Exchange Traded Products System

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, entrepreneurs and co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini, have won a patent claim to provide an effective system for settling Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) holding cryptocurrencies.

The patent was filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in December 2017 and describes virtual currencies as “digital math-based assets”. Taking Bitcoin as an example, the patent explains that “digital math-based asset may be based on an open source mathematical and/or cryptographic protocol, which may exist on a digital asset network, such as a Bitcoin network.”

Patents on the same topic were also filed in 2014 by the Winklevoss brothers. They previously won another patent where they proposed a system to improve the security of digital transactions. The brothers have also been collaborating with stock exchange Nasdaq to use the latter’s technology to monitor crypto markets.

A few days ago, Bill Gates said that he would have shorted Bitcoin if it was easy to do so. “Bitcoin and ICOs, I believe completely [they’re some] of the crazier, speculative things,” said Gates.

Tyler Winklevoss called him out on Twitter and wrote, “Dear @BillGates there is an easy way to short bitcoin. You can short #XBT, the @CBOE Bitcoin (USD) Futures contract, and put your money where your mouth is!”

The Winklevoss twins invested in Bitcoin as early as 2013 and have ended up becoming two of the richest people in the crypto world. They have also called the famous cryptocurrency gold 2.0 in various interviews. “[W]hat makes gold gold? Scarcity,” Cameron said. “Bitcoin is actually fixed in supply so it’s better than scarce … it’s more portable, its fungible, it’s more durable … We think regardless of the price moves in the last few weeks, it’s still a very underappreciated asset,” said Cameron Winklevoss.